What's Cookin' and Why It Matters

Fresh is Always Best

The pier-side farmers market in Guilvinec, Brittany . Photo by Bob Wynne

When my dear friend Russ Yarrow (author of the excellent Substack blog “Just Exactly Perfect”) sent me last week’s Wall Street Journal article “Why Americans Crave Southern French Cooking Now…” it took me back nearly 50 years to a prestigious cooking school in Avignon, France.

It was a different Avignon when I showed up for a University of Washington study abroad program in January 1975. A tougher town accustomed more to Marseille gangsters than American tourists.

It was also a culturally rich college town with the main focus of study being French history and international affairs.

Kitchen supply store E. Dehillerin in Paris has been supplying serious French chefs since the 1880s. Photo by Bob Wynne

But in the first week of school, I met a girl I kinda liked so when she asked if I was going to sign up for the cooking class at the Provencal Cooking Academy I said, “you bet” and rushed back to my room to see if I could find a clean shirt.

I knew nothing about cooking, but I had worked as a dishwasher and “bar-back” evenings at a Mexican restaurant while spending my days on Park City, Utah’s Professional Ski Patrol.

In culinary terms I was knowledgeable about the “back of the house” but I had never moved “up the line” to where the chefs cheffed. Or into the dining room where the servers ruled.

Lettuce eat more lettuce! Photo by Bob Wynne

But Peggy, the girl I kind of liked, knew a lot. She claims she learned the basics from TV chef Graham Kerr of “Galloping Gourmet” fame who she would religiously watch when she came home from school every day.

Her mother’s cooking, I would come to learn, was not too good. I think Graham Kerr was Peggy’s savior and she often, while still in junior high, cooked dinner for her mother and herself.

(Editor’s note: I had the chance to meet Graham Kerr once at a cookbook signing in San Francisco a decade ago.  I thanked him for all the great meals I had enjoyed over the years courtesy of his show.  We shared a laugh as he wiped a tear from his eye.)

All this brings me back to the Wall Street Journal article and the old saying “there’s nothing new under the sun.”

Trawlers in Guilvinec line up to unload the day’s catch - just hours old. Photo by Bob Wynne

Of course, Americans crave southern French cooking. It was great, if a bit undiscovered, in 1975. And it is still great today.

The French take cooking, really they take the whole dining process, seriously. Good food is important – socially and nutritionally. Ingredients must be fresh, as in lettuce that is hours old, chicken, fruit and vegetables that are a day old and – an exception here – drink that is decades old.

Recipes are handed down generation to generation, shared among family and friends and carefully refined to keep up with the latest taste trends.

Whether it’s coq au vin or tian de courgettes et de chevre or a hearty soupe au poulet, food matters.  Think about it, the entire nation basically shuts down Sunday afternoon to eat.

Stores, even the big box places, close their doors at 12:30 p.m.  Trust me, you don’t want to be the last person in line keeping the clerks from lunch.

Some 48 years after that cooking class, Peggy is still at it.  We now live in the Bordeaux region just outside the village of Pellegrue.

The weekly farmer’s market here is small, but the patrons are loyal. One particularly sharp-eyed farmer has begun putting aside what he considers to be his best product from which Peggy can choose. Fresh is best, still.

The morning after the night before at a Paris glass recycle station. Photo by Bob Wynne

Just as important as French dining is French drink.

Most of the Michelin stars in this region whether for food or drink are reserved for Bordeaux’s better-known establishments.

We live among the vineyards where the heavy lifting of wine making takes place. Tons and tons of grapes are grown, lovingly tended (still mostly by hand) and harvested.

The vineyard workers understand that they are carrying on a century’s old tradition. They take great pride in their work. They know that no French meal is complete without a high quality, well-suited wine.

And while home cooking is greatly appreciated by the French, restaurant dining is not to be overlooked.

When it’s time for lunch, we will often watch restaurant parking lots for the small white cargo fans favored by vineyard workers. That’s where you want to eat.

Small restaurants with no nonsense names like Le Patio, A Table, or Café du Monde feature hearty soups and chicken and vegetable dishes the workers crave in a country that does not skip or skimp on lunch.

At the end of the day, we need to make our diets healthy. Photo by Peggy Wynne

Circling back to The Wall Street Journal article, I think Americans (all nationalities really) crave French cooking simply because it tastes good and leaves the diner feeling good.

If there is more to it than that then perhaps Berkeley chef Alice Waters summed it up best.

“We need to make our diets healthy by eating more fruit and vegetables and less meat, and we need to respond to climate change with farming methods that protect and renew the earth…which is what they’ve been doing in the south of France for centuries.”

Voila!.